A blog about working in and living in Chicago as an Orthodox single guy over 30.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Gustav and the point of a convention

In light of Hurricane Gustav, the GOP is curtailing some of the activities in the convention.

What is the point of a political convention? To call roll and nominate a ticket (President and Vice President). However, the whole thing should NOT be canceled. Why? Isn't that heartless of you Josh.

Well, the Minneapolis-St. Paul region allocated hotel space and an arena for four days, plus vendors. Additionally, the Minnesota Twins baseball team went on the road for two weeks to accommodate the RNC. Should we send the Twins team down to the Gulf Coast to help with the relief effort?

Let's use a more practical example. Suppose one wants to get married, B'Ezrat Hashem in a nice hall. However, there is a natural disaster in one of the cities of one of the guests. Do you cancel the whole wedding? Not unless there's a death in the family or Lo Alenu a terrorist attack.

All that has to happen at a political convention , whether the Constitution Party, DNC, RNC or the Greens, is to call roll, approve the platform and nominate a ticket. Anything above and beyond that is gravy. If the RNC wants to meet in the Halliburton headquarters, be my guest.

By the way, how come the Democrats didn't get flack for this greek temple set-up at Invesco Field at Mile High? Isn't that elaborate.

There are Rabbis who have proposed a set of guidelines for a simcha, limiting the size of the event, how many guests can be invited and so on and so forth.

Well, one of my points is that the city of Minneapolis-St. Paul invested a lot of time and effort, as well as the vendors who work at the convention. They have lives as well as the residents of Louisiana and Mississippi.